Lou Dobbs

One of the leading cable television talk show hosts, Lou Dobbs also has been a front-runner in the dot-com world. An executive vice president with CNN, Dobbs founded CNN's Financial News (CNNfn) and its Web affiliate, CNNfn.com, the first programming services that were launched simultaneously on television and the Internet. Dobbs also anchored CNN's show Moneyline News Hour.

Dobbs was born in rural Idaho, far away from the nation's financial centers, and eventually won a scholarship to Harvard, where he graduated in economics. However, he pursued a journalism career, beginning as a financial news reporter on Seattle's KING-TV until Ted Turner hired him in 1980 as CNN's chief economics correspondent and as host of Moneyline. Dobbs became president of CNNfn in 1997. With Dobbs as anchor, Moneyline ranked among CNN's highest income-earning programs, though initially critics labeled its content as "boring."

Dobbs's first Internet endeavor was CNNfn.com, a Web site affiliated with the popular cable program. A fully searchable site, CNNfn.com featured financial news and hosted a financial information directory. Dobbs predicted the site would double its 2 billion hits after its first year in operation. Unlike many dotcom ventures, CNNfn.com turned a profit of approximately $25 million.

After 19 years with Moneyline, in July 1999 Dobbs resigned to launch another Internet venture, Space.com. The site provided news, information, entertainment, and educational content on outer space and was aimed at a wide online audience. The site was served by a news staff of 27 journalists operating from bureaus in Washington, D.C., Cape Canaveral, Houston, and Pasadena. It drew revenue from several sources, including online and television advertising, content syndication, a magazine, and retail licensing and merchandising. Dobbs also envisioned developing the site's business-to-business capability.

In early 2001, Dobbs announced that he intended to return to CNN and Moneyline. He also planned to help launch the network's new show Money. This financial program targeted average Americans, rather than the upper-income households attracted by Moneyline. Dobbs would resign as chief executive of Space.com, but remain chairman and keep his stake in the company. In 1999, Dobbs won the Horatio Alger Association award for Distinguished Americans.